Hip-hop is a multifaceted genre of twentieth-century music, whose influence has expanded from the streets to the runway. It is a global phenomenon embraced by millions. Hip-hop began in the Bronx, New York and was forged by black youth as a form of artistic expression. Groups like Run-D.M.C. were iconic with their trademarks: Adidas sneakers, tracksuits, bucket hats, and gold rope chains. The fashion world avidly participated by appropriating the bright colors, athletic wear, loose-fitting garmen

Carmen Miranda was born in Portugal but grew up in Rio de Janeiro and considered herself a Brazilian. Her love of singing led to a career as a musical star in Brazil, going on conquer the US in 1939. Her cheery, colorful persona wiggled through a succession of Hollywood movies in extraordinary costumes that celebrated the color and passion of Brazil and its music, accented with Carmen’s trademark headpieces. Her influence on fashion in her lifetime was strong, with ranges of clothing, jewelry, sh

For her fall/winter 1993–1994 “Anglomania” collection, Vivienne Westwood perched her models on extremely elevated platform shoes. Inspired, as most of her collection, by Scottish traditional garments, the platform shoes reinterpreted ancestral ghillies worn for folkloric dances. However, apart from the lacing structure, the shoes were more reminiscent of fetish footwear—an aesthetic typical of Vivienne Westwood’s taste for combining conservatism with subversiveness. When the British designer rein

This collection continued the development of Lagerfeld’s Chanel. Beaded looks were made to look like intricate tapestries and the hems of skirts were either floor-length or well above the knee, a deviation from Chanel’s strict rule of creating skirts 2 in. (5 cm) below the knee, no matter the fashion. The final bridal look was a white satin miniskirt suit. Two-tone, matronly pumps were a Chanel signature; the black stilettos in the collection underscored the younger, sexier direction of the house

The sandal-wearing, vegetarian ‘crank’ that Orwell referred to so disparagingly in the 1930s remains a stock figure of ridicule in the present; ‘sandal-wearing’ along with ‘muesli-eating’ and ‘Guardian newspaper-reading’ have become standard accusatory descriptors in British conservative journalism for those perceived to be of a certain liberal disposition. In the interwar period, Orwell’s invective was specifically prompted by a trip to Letchworth Garden City; the ‘simple-lifers’ that he encount

“Greasers” were devotees of a subcultural style originally for young, working-class men (later also women) that emerged in the 1950s in the United States. The word “grease” refers to the wax or pomade used to make the characteristic hairdo of the look, which also typically included biker boots, jeans, T-shirts, and leather jackets. Groupings of greasers would often appear in motorcycle gangs around the emerging rock ’n’ roll scene, and parts of the subculture formed the motorcycle club “Hell’s An

Punk is one of the most influential and highly visible of modern subcultures around the globe. While maintaining its original cachet with subcultural wearers, the aesthetic is also seen on high-fashion runways, in mainstream mall stores, and in every ideation imaginable on the street. Many elements of punk dress, such as combat boots, studded belts, and vibrantly dyed hair, have become iconic in popular culture, yet symbolism and meanings have changed over time. Today’s punk dress is primarily ro

Walking down the main street in Ulan Bator, Mongolia’s capital, past gray, crumbling Soviet-era buildings, a woman wearing a blue silk del, or robe, contrasts with the robust man by her side in a sober, gray Western-style suit. Walking alongside them are women in skinny jeans, fitted T-shirts, and stiletto heels. But far from the city, a nomad wears his sheepskin robe, sitting astride his horse. Mongolia has many faces. Probably the most celebrated of these is Chinggis Khaan, better known by his

The rise of France as an international fashion center under Louis XIV (1643–1715) promoted the popularity of French court styles. Shoes were adorned with decorative buckles, a style that remained highly fashionable until the 1780s. Buckles were bought as separate items and by the late eighteenth century they were available for all tastes and pockets, from sparkling precious stones for the wealthy, to plain steel, brass, and pinchbeck for the lower orders.

By the 1940s downhill skiing was an established sport and leisure pastime in both northern Europe and America. There were now manufacturers and retailers specializing in the production and marketing of specifically designed winter sports wear. War in Europe meant that winter sports and other forms of tourism all but disappeared, temporarily, from the established resorts of the Alps. Skiing grew in popularity in North America and some ski teachers from Austria and Germany, fleeing Nazi persecution

Source: Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. West Europe
2010

Encyclopedia entry

The extremes of the Arctic climate set Greenland dress apart from dress in the rest of West Europe. It is made from the skins and furs of animals and birds and is highly adapted to the conditions and lifestyle of the Arctic people. Even so there are distinctive regional dress cultures of the West Greenlanders (Kilaamiut), Northwest Greenlanders (Inughuit), and East Greenlanders (Tunumiit). It was only in the twentieth century that the dress of Greenlanders began to be influenced by dress in the r

Source: Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. South Asia and Southeast Asia
2010

Encyclopedia entry

The Peranakan Chinese in insular Southeast Asia trace their ancestry to Chinese migrants who settled in the Indonesian archipelago and Malay peninsula beginning around the seventeenth century. Peranakan Chinese culture is a mix of Chinese and local elements. As Dutch and British colonial rules were reinforced in the Netherlands Indies and Malay Peninsula, European ideas significantly influenced Peranakan Chinese society in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The geographically dispersed

The materials worn for riding from the mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries were easily distinguished from the silks, muslins, and velvets of fashionable evening dress. Equestrian activities required sturdy and often weatherproof fabrics such as woolen broadcloth, camlet (a silk and wool or hair mixture), melton wool, and gabardine for colder weather and linen or cotton twill for summer or the tropics. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, habits were frequently adorned wi

Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region is located in northwest China, a vast area bordered by Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. Besides the Han Chinese, there are more than ten other ethnic groups, following several different religious traditions, in Xinjiang. Among them are Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tartars, Tajiks, and Hui, all of whom follow various Islamic traditions. The historical Silk Road, which ran through present-day Xinjiang, linked the Far East, Central Asia, western